WATCHING the hordes of ridiculously dressed partiers wandering down my street this weekend, I couldn't help but wonder why Halloween is undoubtedly the biggest holiday at the University. Certainly the fun of dressing up creatively and the readily available candy play a part. The Evangelicals plaguing Grounds lately would also point to the air of devil-worship associated with the holiday as one of its major selling points. The real reason for Halloween's popularity, however, is that it has become the most extreme incarnation of a culture that does not value the individual, but encourages students to think of themselves as worthless.
The phenomenon that is Halloween was perhaps best documented in the movie "Mean Girls," which I am embarrassed to admit I enjoyed. As fans of the movie will recall, the popular girls -- the "Plastics" -- used Halloween as a chance to wear as little as possible without anyone saying anything about it. The movie is, of course, a spoof of these girls, but nevertheless many students at the University apparently have decided to follow the Plastics' lead. The most popular holiday at the University evidently enjoys this popularity because girls are encouraged to go to parties dressed as, well, skanks.
This trend reflects poorly on our culture as a university. Of course, the University is not the only institution of higher learning in the country to celebrate Halloween this way. Perhaps any condemnation of the University's observance of Halloween is more appropriately a critique of our generation as a whole or of the society that has created it. Regardless, the sad spectacle that occurs every Oct. 31 must be changed for the better.
The most obvious critique of the collegiate culture is that it lacks morality. The raving lunatics who show up annually to assert that college students are all going to Hell may have a point. Free from the watchful eye of Mom and Dad, students find themselves able to experiment and to discover their comfort zones on their own. This fact is hardly unique to our generation and is really nothing to worry about. After all, everyone -- the author of this column included -- makes mistakes and suffers the occasional lapse in moral judgment. In fact, given the substantial presence of volunteer groups and CIOs championing worthy causes, morality may in some sense be more prevalent on Grounds than in the non-collegiate world. It is not the morality of our culture, then, that is worrisome.
What is worrisome is our culture's effect on the individual. The "hook-up" culture, as some have described it, seems to see the individual as irrelevant. Physical pleasure that is unrelated to any sort of emotional attachment is regarded as the highest form of revelry in our culture in which any form of attachment is hard to come by.
Furthermore, the prevalence of this debauched culture points to a kind of nihilism in our generation. In addition to the skimpy outfits worn by female students, this attitude is reflected in the horribly offensive costumes, like the bloody Steve Irwin I saw, that are also popular. Our generation apparently holds nothing sacred, including ourselves. Perhaps it is the nihilistic element inherent in the celebration of Halloween that gives it a special appeal. Halloween represents an opportunity to mock our own existence by focusing on our mortality. Maybe our generation, coming into our own in a world that seems more and more irredeemable, understands that sentiment in a profound way. Although it sounds vaguely poetic, this worldview is unhealthy. It is certainly important not to take life too seriously, but there are some things that have worth, and individuals are the most important. The "hook-up" culture denies this claim to worth and thus represents the worst kind of unfulfilling hedonism.
Obviously, our "hook-up" culture is not going to go away anytime soon. It has become so widespread that it seems like a normal way of life. In fact, it is hardly life at all. Unfortunately, a movement away from such a culture would require extensive societal changes that can only be brought about once our generation as a whole rejects the expectations that have been established for it. For now, let's start small. Do something fun this weekend besides partying. Take time to develop a real relationship -- friendly or otherwise -- with someone with whom you have a genuine connection. And next Halloween, wear an actual costume.
Daniel Colbert's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at dcolbert@cavalierdaily.com.
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